Psalms
78
- O my people, hear my teaching; listen to
the words of my mouth.
- I will open my mouth in parables, I will
utter hidden things, things from of old --
- what we have heard and known, what our fathers
have told us.
- We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power,
and the wonders he has done.
- He decreed statutes for Jacob and established
the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children,
- so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
- Then they would put their trust in God and
would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.
- They would not be like their forefathers
-- a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him.
- The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
turned back on the day of battle;
- they did not keep God's covenant and refused
to live by his law.
- They forgot what he had done, the wonders
he had shown them.
- He did miracles in the sight of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
- He divided the sea and led them through;
he made the water stand firm like a wall.
- He guided them with the cloud by day and
with light from the fire all night.
- He split the rocks in the desert and gave
them water as abundant as the seas;
- he brought streams out of a rocky crag and
made water flow down like rivers.
- But they continued to sin against him, rebelling
in the desert against the Most High.
- They willfully put God to the test by demanding
the food they craved.
- They spoke against God, saying, "Can
God spread a table in the desert ?
- When he struck the rock, water gushed out,
and streams flowed abundantly. But can he also give us food? Can he supply
meat for his people ?"
- When the LORD heard them, he was very angry;
his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel,
- for they did not believe in God or trust
in his deliverance.
- Yet he gave a command to the skies above
and opened the doors of the heavens;
- he rained down manna for the people to eat,
he gave them the grain of heaven.
- Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them
all the food they could eat.
- He let loose the east wind from the heavens
and led forth the south wind by his power.
- He rained meat down on them like dust, flying
birds like sand on the seashore.
- He made them come down inside their camp,
all around their tents.
- They ate till they had more than enough,
for he had given them what they craved.
- But before they turned from the food they
craved, even while it was still in their mouths,
- God's anger rose against them; he put to
death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel.
- In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
- So he ended their days in futility and their
years in terror.
- Whenever God slew them, they would seek
him; they eagerly turned to him again.
- They remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
- But then they would flatter him with their
mouths, lying to him with their tongues;
- their hearts were not loyal to him, they
were not faithful to his covenant.
- Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities
and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did
not stir up his full wrath.
- He remembered that they were but flesh,
a passing breeze that does not return.
- How often they rebelled against him in the
desert and grieved him in the wasteland !
- Again and again they put God to the test;
they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
- They did not remember his power
-- the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
- the day he displayed his miraculous signs
in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan.
- He turned their rivers to blood; they could
not drink from their streams.
- He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,
and frogs that devastated them.
- He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
their produce to the locust.
- He destroyed their vines with hail and their
sycamore-figs with sleet.
- He gave over their cattle to the hail, their
livestock to bolts of lightning.
- He unleashed against them his hot anger,
his wrath, indignation and hostility --
a band of destroying angels.
- He prepared a path for his anger; he did
not spare them from death but gave them over to the plague.
- He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,
the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
- But he brought his people out like a flock;
he led them like sheep through the desert.
- He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
but the sea engulfed their enemies.
- Thus he brought them to the border of his
holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken.
- He drove out nations before them and allotted
their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in
their homes.
- But they put God to the test and rebelled
against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes.
- Like their fathers they were disloyal and
faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.
- They angered him with their high places;
they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
- When God heard them, he was very angry;
he rejected Israel completely.
- He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the
tent he had set up among men.
- He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
- He gave his people over to the sword; he
was very angry with his inheritance.
- Fire consumed their young men, and their
maidens had no wedding songs;
- their priests were put to the sword, and
their widows could not weep.
- Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a
man wakes from the stupor of wine.
- He beat back his enemies; he put them to
everlasting shame.
- Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he
did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
- but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion,
which he loved.
- He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that he established forever.
- He chose David his servant and took him
from the sheep pens;
- from tending the sheep he brought him to
be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance.
- And David shepherded them with integrity
of heart; with skillful hands he led them.
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